Jon Stewart: DOJ investigates potheads, hackers, reporters – but no banks Jon Stewart looks at why the Obama administration Department of Justice is far more interested in prosecuting potheads, hackers and reporters than it is banks and Wall Street criminals. http://americablog.com/2013/05/jon-...-potheads-hackers-reporters-but-no-banks.html
Government sues Bank of America over mortgages | Salon The slogan from the frenetic days of Occupy marches in Downtown Manhattan replays in my head like a jingle: “Bank of America, Bad for America.” Since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S.’s second largest bank has seen none of its executives face jail time, despite the bank going through numerous legal battles over a spate of mortgage fraud. So far, the banking giant has paid out $45 billion to settle disputes stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. This week the SEC and the Justice department have filed suit against the bank, once again claiming that it misled investors over mortgage securities. Reuters reported on the latest suits, which will again seek settlement fines and no jail time for any bankers involved: Continued at www.salon.com/2013/08/07/government_sues_bank_of_america_over_mortgages/
Continued at www.salon.com/2013/08/07/government_sues_bank_of_america_over_mortgages/ In other words as the mortgage market was starting to crumble, B of A found people who could pay the mortgages back and loaned to them. But without mentioning they were making bad investments.
In 2009, NYPD Issued 'Surveillance Request' To 'Identify' Anonymous Members During Their Anti-Scientology Rally from the people-wearing-masks-are-inherently-suspicious dept Recently, Adrian Chen tweeted out something interesting: a link to an internal NYPD document detailing a "surveillance request" to stake out a rally by Anonymous at the Church of Scientology. Its purpose? To "identify as many members of as possible." The report goes on to note that the difficulty level of this task might be upped significantly. Please note that members of the group frequently wears masks covering their entire faces. This is an important distinction, as certain members of the surveillance unit might have been more inclined to snoop on more easily identified, unmasked citizens. Now, I can understand why the NYPD might want to uncover the identities of Anonymous members as the (not really an) organization has wreaked a lot of havoc in various areas, most of them online. But there is something unsettling about a police force attending demonstrations and rallies to perform intel rather than to keep the peace. But actions taken during Occupy Wall Street show that the PD's agenda usually means treating protesters (as well as anyone with a camera) as criminals. And attempting to "unmask" participants in an Anonymous rally lumps all attendees in with the activist group, even if many of them have never actively participated in any illegal activities. It also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Anonymous' "structure," i.e., there is none. There's no "head" to capture and mount on the metaphorical wall. There's also no "tail" to drag off to HQ and sweat down in hopes of it offering up higher-ranked members. While it's true that you may find some criminals within the ranks of protesters for any cause, heading into protests with the intent of compiling a "To Arrest" list puts police officers into entirely the wrong mindset. There's enough "us vs. them" attitude floating around already. This simply creates an antagonism that skews the perception of every witnessed activity. Peaceful protests are now just riots waiting to happen. It's not people united for a single cause, it's a hive mind operating under a devious directive. The whole thing is unhealthy for both the police and the public. Continued at www.techdirt.com/articles/20130903/14213924394/2009-nypd-issued-surveillance-request-to-identify-anonymous-members-during-their-anti-scientology-rally.shtml
OWS Icons: Where are they now? Two years later, Nathan Schneider checks in on the people of Liberty Square. http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/multimedia/ows-icons-where-are-they-now.html
Thanks wwp for continuing to sponsor this forum... You won't hack but you'll give a voice to: http://www.redstate.com/2012/12/31/aaron-greene-bomb-occupy-wall-street-terrorism/ https://www.google.com/search?q=occ...YBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CC8QqAI&biw=1024&bih=607&dpr=1 https://www.google.com/search?q=occ...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a especially amusing considering your new forum.... Keep up the good work Comrades.
whosit why dont we talk about how the GOP are holding our country hostage so they can keep making money for the Insurance industry while denying people with pre-existing conditions coverage? Or how about how they were responsible for getting our country's credit rating downgraded?? Or maybe we can talk about how the GOP thinks that rape is OK. Or about how having sex with a gay person is like having sex with a dog. Do you need a nap first?
Scandals cost JPMorgan $1 billion in fines | Reuters It's $1 billion in payouts that JPMorgan Chase & Co most likely wants to forget. In agreements with regulators totaling $1 billion and made public on Thursday, the nation's biggest bank settled four civil investigations into its "London Whale" trading scandal and two more into the wrongful billing of credit-card customers. The deals, which involve five authorities from the United States and one from the UK, are a milestone in the company's push to clean up its legal affairs but leave JPMorgan exposed to additional costs and embarrassment. The bank still faces criminal probes into the trading scandal, its conduct during an energy trading investigation, sales of mortgage securities in the United States and possible bribery in China. Investigators are also looking into its role in setting benchmark interest rates known as LIBOR. The settlements include $920 million of penalties for JPMorgan's London Whale trading scandal, which Chief Executive Jamie Dimon at first dismissed as a "tempest in a teapot" and ultimately resulted in $6.2 billion in losses. The deals included an admission of wrongdoing, which has been rare in past settlements made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A second set of settlements includes $80 million of payments for billing of credit-card customers for identity-theft protection services that they did not receive. The deals, made with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, come after the company issued $309 million of refunds to customers. The Comptroller of the Currency also on Thursday ordered JPMorgan to improve its consumer debt-collection practices. That order did not include financial penalties and involved allegations made public more than two years ago. Continued with open comments at www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-jpmorgan-whale-idUSBRE98I0JL20130919
Coming Soon? An Occupy Wall Street Debit Card | New York Times To mark the second anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement last month, an assortment of protests, marches and rallies were held, to support or oppose mostly predictable causes. At the same time, a far more surprising undertaking began with far less fanfare: creating a prepaid Occupy debit card. The idea, led by a group that includes a Cornell law professor, a former director of Deutsche Bank and a former British diplomat, is meant to serve people who do not have bank accounts, but it also aims to make Occupy a recognized financial services brand. On Sept. 17, the day of the anniversary, the group, known as the Occupy Money Cooperative, began raising money to pay for initial operating expenses. The group’s Web site invites visitors to “join the revolution,” suggesting that using the card might represent a “protest with every purchase.” That language evokes the spirit of the sprawling encampment of tents and tarps that briefly took over Zuccotti Park in 2011, and several people who were familiar figures there have endorsed the mission of the card, which its founders have described as “low-cost, transparent, high-quality financial services to the 99 percent.” Continued at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/nyregion/coming-soon-an-occupy-wall-street-debit-card.html Also: http://www.occupycooperative.com/
Jon Stewart to financial TV reporters: Fuck all y'all. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/...wart-to-financial-TV-reporters-fuck-all-y-all
Bank of America hit with $864mn penalty over mortgage fraud | RT Business The US government wants Bank of America Corp to fork over $863.6 million in damages after a federal jury found it guilty of selling subprime mortgages, the defective securities largely responsible for triggering the Great Recession in 2008. The US Justice Department argued that Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America in 2008, committed fraud by selling shoddy home loans over a two-year period to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) designed to enhance the flow of credit to targeted sectors of the economy. The government also demanded penalties against Rebecca Mairone, a former executive at Countrywide unit who was cited in the lawsuit as having repeatedly ignored warnings about the "Hustle," otherwise known as the "High Speed Swim Lane." In an effort to squeeze as much business as possible from a steadily eroding housing market, Countrywide extended loans to low-income families with little hope of meeting the demand of a fluctuating monthly payment. As a result, Countrywide was cited for placing too much emphasis on the sheer volume of loans, not the quality. “Countrywide eliminated every significant checkpoint of loan quality and compensated its employees solely based on the volume of loans originated, leading to rampant instances of fraud and other serious loan defects, all while Countrywide was informing the GSEs that it had tightened its underwriting guidelines,” the Justice Department complaint against Bank of America stated. The amount of the penalty is based on gross losses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incurred on the Countrywide mortgages, the government said. Mairone, who worked at Countrywide and Bank of America from 2006 until 2012, is now employed with JPMorgan Chase & Co. She has denied any wrongdoing. No criminal charges have been filed against Mairone or any other individual in connection with the alleged misconduct. Bank of America is scheduled to respond to the government's penalty request by November 20. Continued at http://rt.com/business/bank-america-mortgage-fraud-500/
TWrongG I'm glad to know at least you will see this here, and that OWS is still making a difference - https://whyweprotest.net/community/threads/occupywallstreet-updates.94183/page-45 Occupy Wall Street activists buy $15m of Americans' personal debt Rolling Jubilee spent $400,000 to purchase debt cheaply from banks before 'abolishing' it, freeing individuals from their bills A group of Occupy Wall Street activists has bought almost $15m of Americans' personal debt over the last year as part of the Rolling Jubilee project to help people pay off their outstanding credit. Rolling Jubilee, set up by Occupy's Strike Debt group following the street protests that swept the world in 2011, launched on 15 November 2012. The group purchases personal debt cheaply from banks before "abolishing" it, freeing individuals from their bills. By purchasing the debt at knockdown prices the group has managed to free $14,734,569.87 of personal debt, mainly medical debt, spending only $400,000. "We thought that the ratio would be about 20 to 1," said Andrew Ross, a member of Strike Debt and professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University. He said the team initially envisaged raising $50,000, which would have enabled it to buy $1m in debt. "In fact we've been able to buy debt a lot more cheaply than that." The group is able to buy debt so cheaply due to the nature of the "secondary debt market". If individuals consistently fail to pay bills from credit cards, loans, or medical insurance the bank or lender that issued the funds will eventually cut its losses by selling that debt to a third party. These sales occur for a fraction of the debt’s true values – typically for five cents on the dollar – and debt-buying companies then attempt to recoup the debt from the individual debtor and thus make a profit. The Rolling Jubilee project was mostly conceived as a "public education project", Ross said. "We're under no illusions that $15m is just a tiny drop in the secondary debt market. It doesn't make a dent in the amount of debt. "Our purpose in doing this, aside from helping some people along the way – there's certainly many, many people who are very thankful that their debts are abolished – our primary purpose was to spread information about the workings of this secondary debt market." The group has focussed on buying medical debt, and has acquired the $14.7m in three separate purchases, most recently spending $13.5m on medical debt owed by 2,693 people across 45 states and Puerto Rico, Rolling Jubilee said in a press release. “No one should have to go into debt or bankruptcy because they get sick,” said Laura Hanna, an organiser with the group. Hanna said 62% of all personal bankruptcies have medical debt as a contributing factor. Due to the nature of the debt market, the group is unable to specify whose debt it purchases, taking on the amounts before it discovers individuals’ identities. When Rolling Jubilee has bought the debt they send notes to their debtors “telling them they’re off the hook”, Ross said. Ross, whose book, Creditocracy and the case for debt refusal, outlines the problems of the debt industry and calls for a “debtors’ movement” to resist credit, said the group had received letters from people whose debt they had lifted thanking them for the service. But the real victory was in spreading knowledge of the nature of the debt industry, he said. "Very few people know how cheaply their debts have been bought by collectors. It changes the psychology of the debtor, knowing this. “So when you get called up by the debt collector, and you're being asked to pay the full amount of your debt, you now know that the debt collector has bought your debt very, very cheaply. As cheaply as we bought it. And that gives you moral ammunition to have a different conversation with the debt collector."
NYPD moves to limit public access to local crime information | RT USA Each of the 77 New York City police precincts have been ordered to stop providing the media with information about the crimes that take place under their jurisdiction in what is considered by critics as a severe curtailing of the city’s transparency.A New York Police Department edict issued to precincts throughout the city notified commanders that “any requests by the media to view complaint reports” should “be referred to the office of the Deputy Commission For Public Information (DCPI).” The document was first published Thursday by The Nabe, a New York-based community blog.“While the Commanding Officer of the precinct, and not a Community Affairs officer, is the person that can help provide information, DCPI is the hub for all media requests and we will gladly facilitate all inquiries through this office,” a DCPI officer told the Nabe.The DCPI normally updates the media and provides information on major crimes – whether it be murders, sexual assaults, or major theft. But the office has typically left the duty of giving the details around minor crimes to the precinct in that area. One source told DNAinfo, another New York news site, that the “DCPI is a small unit, so I don’t know how they’re going to handle it.”The announcement comes as Commissioner Kelly prepares to leave office next month, when Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced he will be replaced by William Bratton. Over the past 12 years, Kelly has slowly brought the entire public image of the NYPD to rest upon his shoulders. He and former spokesman Paul Browne were generally the only administrators who ever spoke to inquiring reporters.“This is just another sign of the current NYPD’s hostility to public accountability,” Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told DNA Info’s Murray Weiss. “Starting in January, we expect the department to take a dramatically different approach to openness, one that will benefit not only local newspapers, but the press and public in general.”Gothamist.com was able to reach the DCPI and asked if the office would be expanded to accommodate the oncoming wave of phone calls and media requests.“I don’t know,” the other line replied. “I’m only a lieutenant.”According to the 88th Precinct’s Community Affairs officer the changes are due to inconsistency in policy, whereby some precincts currently allow journalists to access forms and others do not. Amid pressure by the media for all precincts to allow access to reports officials decided to simply end all access for journalists. Continued at http://rt.com/usa/nypd-journalism-crack-down-reporters-866/
Occupy Wall Street beating suit to cost city $82,000 | New York Daily News The city will pay out an $82,500 settlement to an Occupy Wall Street activist who claims police beat him up and arrested him three times - the last instance booking him on a years-old public urination warrant for someone else, the Daily News has learned. Shawn Schrader, 24, said the beatdowns left him with a bleeding ear, a hurt thumb and nightmares about cops. "I settled my lawsuit because the police lawyers made it clear they would fight me tooth and nail on every claim," Schrader told The News. All charges against Schrader stemming from the three arrests were dropped. In the final arrest, on May 2012, Schrader claims intelligence officers used the urination warrant as a bogus excuse to suppress his free speech, interrogate him and throw a monkey wrench in the May Day protests he was helping to coordinate. Schrader, of Manhattan, had been using the name Shawn Carrie as his pseudonym on Twitter and while working for the Occupy movement, and the 2007 warrant was for another individual with that name. He said he showed the cops an ID with his real name when they collared him. Schrader's lawyer Jeffrey Rothman noted that cops almost never seek out and arrest people on old public urination warrants, adding that the case "illustrates starkly the NYPD's brutal response to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the continuing malfeasance of its Intelligence Division in the suppression of protected First Amendment activity." In an earlier arrest that started in Zuccotti Park on March 17, 2012, cops stomped and choked him, Schrader said in his March 2013 lawsuit. He said an officer made his ear bleed, and growled, "Are you Occupy Wall Street people going to come back and demonstrate? Are you punks going to come back and keep showing up? Because every time you guys come back we're going to kick your asses." <snipped> Schrader said he still has nightmares about the NYPD. "I have visceral flashbacks of my head being repeatedly stomped on," he said. "If people have a problem with the fact that $82,500 of their tax money is going to clean up the NYPD's mess, they have a right to be." City lawyer Muriel Goode-Trufant said, "Settlement was in the city's best interest." http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ows-beating-suit-cost-city-82-000-article-1.1541903
Occupy Madison builds first house in planned eco-village for the homeless By Travis Gettys Friday, December 27, 2013 10:52 EST A homeless Wisconsin couple moved into a “tiny home” Christmas Eve they helped build with fellow Occupy Madison members. Chris Derrick and Betty Ybarra had been living since April in an encampment at a county park with other members of the protest group, which plans to build more small homes with college students and other volunteers for the city’s growing homeless population. A citywide count in January found 831 homeless people – a 47 percent increase over three years – in Madison, where the average home sale costs nearly $300,000. The protest group, which grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement to protest wealth inequality, put together teams of volunteers to build two houses using a basic blueprint that can be adapted to fit the creators’ tastes. The homeless volunteers earn their houses – which include a bed, toilet and insulation – by working under the supervision of more experienced builders. The $3,000 homes, which are paid for through private donations, are mounted on trailers so they don’t require a plot of land and can be parked legally on the street as long as they’re moved every 48 hours. Occupy organizers recently convinced Madison city officials to change zoning laws to allow the homes to be parked on private property with the owner’s permission. “It’s not just a shelter, it’s a commitment to a lifestyle,” said Brenda Konkel, who heads a tenants’ rights group in Madison. “It’s a co-op mixed with Habitat for Humanity mixed with eco-village as the long-term goal.” The first house includes a pole-mounted solar panel donated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is based on lighting equipment used by villagers in Costa Rica to guard against snakebites while going to use outdoor latrines. Much more at the link... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/...ouse-in-planned-eco-village-for-the-homeless/
Bank of America employs 20 full-time social media spies, watches anarchists and occupy protesters http://privacysos.org/node/1293
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/...pmorgan-chase-nyc-from-criminal-investigation Eric Holder is shielding JPmorgan and chase. reported at least two weeks ago but still very important
This isn't directly related, but it belongs here somewhere. New York Cops, Firefighters in Massive 9/11 Fraud, Indictment Says | ABC News More than 100 retired New York City cops, firefighters and correction officers were charged today with falsely claiming to be suffering from depression and anxiety as a result of the 9/11 terror attacks, New York prosecutors said today.The alleged scam won awards up to $500,000 for the uniformed personnel and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, according to the indictment.Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the suspects "cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of Sept 11th... dishonoring the first responders."Police Commissioner William Bratton said, "The retired members of the NYP indicted in this case have disgraced all first responders who perished during the search and rescue efforts on Sept. 11, 2001."The prosecution backed up its case with recorded phone calls of the suspects being coached on how to behave in front of a medical board and photos of the suspects doing vigorous activity like jet skiing, doing mixed martial arts, and going on cruises after convincing doctors they were unable to leave their homes.Today's arrests cap a two year investigation, aided by federal investigators, the city's Department of Investigation and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau.The alleged fraud cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in improper Social Security benefits.The indictment charges four men with masterminding the alleged fraud, including attorney Raymond Lavellee, 81, Thomas Hale, 89, Joseph Esposito, 70, and John Minerva, 59.Hale is president of a firm that determines eligibility for Social Security disability. Esposito is a former NYPD employee and Minerva is an ex-cop who is currently a disability consultant for the Detectives Endowment Association.None of the accused actually suffered from debilitating stress, officials claim. Many were caught working after retirement, a violation of disability benefits.And some of the retired officers retained their gun permits. Retired officers cannot possess guns if they are being treated for stress.Court papers included what prosecutors said were recorded phone calls in which Esposito "coached" the officers how to dress and behave and now to muff questions to show that lacked concentration."They're liable to say... spell the word 'world,' so you go 'W-R-L-D.' Then they're gonnna say 'Spell it backwards.' You think about it, and you can't spell it backwards," Esposito was recorded saying.He allegedly told officers claiming that their debilitating anxieties stemmed from the 9/11 attacks to tell examiners they were "afraid of planes and entering large buildings." Continued here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/york-cops-firefighters-massive-911-fraud-indictment/story?id=21445783
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html Oh hello whats this? Hidden frat society in wallstreet, and one of such members is Michael Bloomberg aka ex mayor Bloomerg of New York. Behold the hidden world of Kappa Beta phi of a wallstreet secret society and just... these guys just piss me off!
Love you people. Just going to post this here.... http://www.marca.com/2014/02/26/en/more_sports/1393438337.html (I'm going to look at other post. Expect me to x-post) Go FORWARD (MSNBC) Comrades.
Now that we are a couple of months out from what reality is. How do you feel about this post asshole.
Protester who was beaten unconscious at Occupy Wall Street goes on trial in NYC This is big people http://www.alternet.org/activism/ju...ious-police-faces-7-years-prison-elbowing-cop
